Dropsie College
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Dropsie University Complex
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the original location of Dropsie University
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| Location | Broad and York Streets Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
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| Coordinates | Coordinates: 39°59′20.2632″N 75°9′19.0548″W / 39.988962000°N 75.155293000°W |
| Area | 2 acres (0.81 ha) |
| Built | 1909 |
| Architect | Lewis F. Pilcher & W.T. Tachau |
| Architectural style | Beaux Arts, Renaissance |
| NRHP Reference # | 75001661 |
| Added to NRHP | January 17, 1975 |
The Hebert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies (CAJS or "the Katz Center") at the University of Pennsylvania is the world's first and only institution exclusively dedicated to post-doctoral research on Jewish Civilization. It is located at 420 Walnut Street between S. 4th and S. 5th Streets in the Old City, Philadelphia neighborhood of Philadelphia. The center is directed by Professor David B. Ruderman.
The institution now known as CAJS was founded in 1907 as the Dropsie College of Hebrew and Cognate Learning and finally as Dropsie University. It was named after its benefactor, Moses Aaron Dropsie (1821–1905), a wealthy man whose father was Jewish and mother was Christian but who self-identified as Jewish from the age of 14. Dropsie willed his entire fortune to "the promotion of and instruction in the Hebrew and cognate languages and their respective literatures."
Dropsie granted more than 200 Ph.D.s between its inception and its closing as a degree-granting institution in 1986. Dropsie was also the publisher of the Jewish Quarterly Review, which was at the time the most respected journal on the subject.
The faculty during the Dropsie era included scholars from outside the United States, including Benzion Netanyahu, who came from Jerusalem with his young sons, Yonatan (Yoni) and Benjamin (Bibi), who there had their first true exposures to American culture, which would become a touchstone for later interactions with the American public for Bibi.
Although no longer a degree-granting college, it became the Annenberg Research Institute after its 1986 closing and turned into one of the country's most noted interdisciplinary post-doctoral fellowship programs. It merged with the University of Pennsylvania in 1993, after which the institution was renamed the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. It continues to publish the Jewish Quarterly Review, the oldest continuously published Judaic studies journal in English.
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